Mobile devices tend to be used intermittently with varied user-session durations. A user may begin a session on their mobile device while waiting in line, riding the elevator, or commuting, for example, and become interrupted or otherwise put away their device when something else requires the user's attention. Merchants or other parties seeking to communicate with mobile-device users must compete for the users' attention during these windows of user engagement.
Email, text message, and other traditional forms of communication that solicit a user response (e.g., offers to purchase a product, promotions, customer surveys, or similar messages) are easily ignored or forgotten by users because they require a commitment of time and effort to respond, such as composing a reply message, launching an application, navigating to a website, etc. For example, in the case of an email from a merchant that offers a discount, a particular user might decide to respond later and accept the discount, but forget; may be uninterested; may find the offer irrelevant; or may think that responding will take too much time, or more time than the user has available at that moment, such as where the user is about to get off an elevator. This not only leaves the merchant without a response, but without valuable information about why a particular user did not respond to their communication.